Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Department of "Public Safety" or "Collections"?

According to a reader who attended, at yesterday's meeting of the Public Safety Commission there was a lengthy discussion, prompted by Commissioner Carin Barth, of the Orwellian-named "Driver Responsibility" program. Rather than criticize the draconian, regressive nature of the fee, though, which was created during the 2003 budget crisis expressly as an alternative to property tax hikes, Commissioner Barth wanted to know why there was only a 30% collection rate. (For the current fiscal year, the board was told, DPS has collected $170 million.)

That's easy enough: This is an administrative fee piled on top of the already-steep criminal penalties for a no-insurance ticket or DWI stop. It's quite high and stretches out over three years, in some cases at a cost of $1,000 per year or more. In the case of no-insurance, in particular, the main reason people aren't insured is usually cost, not criminal malice. So piling on needless extra cost actually reduces the likelihood drivers can afford insurance and arguably reduces public safety. After a certain point, there is a diminishing return on the effectiveness of high fines and this fee long ago crossed that threshold.

All of the commissioners expressed dissatisfaction with the collection rate, but none expressed any reservations about the program itself -- though they did note that several legislators are not supportive of the program.

Drivers License Division Chief Judy Brown noted that the program was modeled after New Jersey's ("why we would want to emulate ANYTHING about New Jersey is anathema to me," my informant intones as an aside) -- and she said the NJ program had tools at its disposal which are not available to the DPS, particularly the ability to put liens on people's homes and to garnish their wages. (!) "Don't be surprised if DPS seeks statutory authority for this next session," I was told.

The vendor in charge of collections makes automated calls to non-payers and sends out dunning letters on the Department's letterhead. (Chief of Audit & Inspection Farrell Walker committed a gaffe of sorts when he referred to these as "annoyance calls" and was gently upbraided for it by Commissioner John Steen.) The Commission appears to favor increasing the frequency of the "annoyance calls" and dunning letters, and reporting non-payers to the credit bureaus. In fact, there's some sentiment for wanting to review the contractor's performance. Chairman Allan Polunsky specifically asked staff whether there is a termination clause in the contract. The contractor will be summoned to attend the next PSC meeting.

It sounds like the PSC is focused on the wrong problem regarding driver responsibility fees. I'm surprised to hear commissioners weren't instead discussing the new indigency program mandated by the 81st Legislature in DPS's Sunset bill. Instead they're focused on mulcting more money from already-punished Texans who can't afford it or else busting them with the credit agencies. A little tone-deaf to the zeitgeist of the times, don't you think?

Anyone who'd like to educate the PSC about the Driver Responsibility program may want to mark their calendars for the third Thursday in July when the commission meets again.

17 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The Driver Responsibility Program has to be one of the most ill-concieved initiatives ever. Some areas now have special court dockets for persons charged with Driving With License Invalid, the law violation one commits by driving without having paid the surcharge. If they don't pay, they are routinely sentenced to jail time at county, not state expense. First time DWI offenders have large financial obligations what with fines, court costs and probation fees. They don't pay the DRP surcharge, they have to drive to work, they get arrested for DWLS, get jail time, can't work, and on and on. It's a whirlpool that's almost impossible for many to escape unless you're named Krusee.

Charlie O, you've seen me on this blog defend the DPS against charges that they are just handing out tickets to collect revenues. I don't believe that for a moment, though I have complained many times over the years of actual and perceived quotas in isolated circumstances.

But in this completely different context, I agree with you. I am a little uncomfortable with the idea of the state police being bill collectors. These surcharges are civil, not criminal. But your failure to pay them makes you a criminal.

We don't imprison people for debt. At least that's what I thought. I have no quarrel with the cops giving you a "hard copy" for 70/55 or for not having your insurance card like you're supposed to. But I think it's kinda unseemly to have the state police collecting a civil "surcharge" -- and a burdensome one at that -- that is scarely different than any other kind of tax designed to create some incentive or disincentive for any other kind of behavior.

I should make clear here that I am expressing my personal views and not those of any association or client I represent. I also don't intend for my comments to be read as a criticism of the PSC or anyone at DPS. They have been given responsibility for implementing and administering this program by our Legislature. They have a duty to do it the best they can. If the Legislature were to shut down the program, well, then, everyone could go on to doing something else.

I'm not aware that this program has had any measurable favorable impact on the prevalence of DWI and FTMFR in Texas...if anyone has stats on that I'd be interested to hear of them.

Anon, I don't know the Association's position on this, or if it even has a position on this. I'm not even confident that any Association member has anything to do with the program. My clientele are the non-supervisory uniforms, not the bill collectors.

BTW, I just read a summary of yesterday's meeting prepared by another attendee, and apparently DLD Chief Judy Brown announced her retirement at yesterday's meeting.

I stumbled across your blog today and I think it’s great. My company runs a legal blog and I was looking for other blogs on the web to exchange mutual blog links with. We have a blogroll on the top right side of our page that I can add your blog to if you add my company’s blog to your blog, as well.

Let me know if this is something you’d be interested in doing. My company’s blog is called LegalMatch Law Blog, you can check it out at this address: http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I’m usually in the office Tuesday to Thursday. However, I’ll be out all next week on a business trip.

Don, as far as the PSC being required to administer the program created by the Lege, that's true as far as it goes. But at yesterday's meeting, it's not like they were focused on the new legislative requirement to create an indigency program; they wanted to squeeze out the maximum revenue without regard for the program's flaws. Yes, the Lege created the darn thing, but the Lege also mandated the indigency program!

It should also be mentioned that EXPANDING the fee to include other offenses was an item on the PSC's legislative wish list, so they have some culpability for promoting the thing, too.

The PSC must adopt rules for the indigency program soon, so maybe that'd be a better focus for their attention than dressing down a vendor for their predictable inability to draw blood from a stone.

Sorry to hear Judy's leaving, and I hope it's on her own terms. Col. Davis' old crew is getting pretty thin among the top ranks over there.

I'm a Female- no prior record- DWI-first offender as of October 2003 - (ONE month after the surcharge law went into effect). A law So new, that my DWI lawyer and my Court Appointed Probation Officer felt it un-important to inform or educate me as to what I was facing for the next 3 years @ $1040.00 per year. With 1 month remaining of my 2 year sentence. I was stopped 2 blocks from my home for a broken tail light, Arrested - Johnny ON THE SPOT for DWLS, that I had no knowledge of. My vehicle was still impounded even being 2 blocks from my residence. As a result, REVOKED my Probation due to the arrest, added another year to the sentence and the *BS just goes on .... I better stop now !!!!

This is just another example of Polunsky overreaching. I am sure that with the contract being terminated, it will then be given to one of the cronies of the Gov or Polunsky. I would like to see what kind of stock Polunsky has in Deloitte because there has been a lot of money being shoveled their way to get their strawman study to point at so the Gov's cronies could be put in place to replace the crew that bucked the Gov last legislature......

Half of the fees go to fund trauma centers. I believe that most of the testimony in support of keeping the fees came from that interest group.

The other half of the fees goes into a fund for the future Trans-Texas Corridor. I believe the legislation pertaining to the Corridor and these fees were passed in the same session.

This is obviously no more than a bad driver TAX which contributes to more unlicensed, and therefore, more uninsured drivers to the detriment of everyone. A terrible way to generate monies veiled as punitive with the dubious goal of public safety.

10:39, according to the HHS Code 780.002: which created the trauma fund account "The comptroller shall deposit 49.5 percent of the money received under [the DRP program] to the credit of the account established under this chapter and 49.5 percent of the money to the general revenue fund."

I believe that most of the testimony in support of keeping the fees came from that interest group.The other half of the fees goes into a fund for the future Trans-Texas Corridor. I believe the legislation pertaining to the Corridor and these fees were passed in the same session...Dallas Courier Service

Southern, daily and good for you

Grits for Breakfast looks at the Texas criminal justice system, with a little politics and whatever
else suits the author's fancy thrown in. All opinions are my own. The facts belong to everybody. Who is this guy?

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Woodlands

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"